Moving from Midwest with kids-- Watertown, Newton, Arlington, Belmont?

[bugelrex]

Fhr82

The phrases
"buy the worst house in the best neighborhood"
"You can change everything except for location"

For resale, a family with kids in a excellent school district will eat Ramen noodles everyday before moving their kids out of school.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by FHR82

This is an old post, obviously, but considering two homes: one in Watertown (gut rehab, big lot, perfect layout) near Waverley Square, and the other in West Newton (needs some work, less ideal layout, but great lot) near the Waltham border. Kids are currently in private K-8 school. We like having a public school option - which for us Watertown is not - but are comfortable with private high school if necessary. It’s important to us to have walkability, economic and racial diversity, and an urban-ish feel. (FWIW, we previously lived in Needham, and I hated how suburban it felt.) What do people recommend? Price difference between the houses is fairly significant, and while we can afford both, we couldn’t renovate Newton house for some time.

Needham is definitely not for everyone and especially not for someone looking for a more urban feel.

I guess your choice depends on what's more important to you . . . having a house that you'll absolutely love or resale value. I don't know which two houses you're looking at specifically but speaking in very broad terms it would be reasonable to expect that the West Newton house has a better chance for higher and easier resale. It does sound though that you like the Watertown house better (when considering just the house itself) and if you're gutting it you could truly make the house your own. So, you have to ask yourself which is more important to you.

Originally Posted by BosYuppie

That neighborhood of residences that straddles West Newton and Waltham will 100% have the more urban feel. Moody Street is a treasure by the way.

Moody Street is awesome. West Newton has a lot to offer itself as well. The West Newton Cinema just reopened actually.

Originally Posted by bugelrex

Fhr82

The phrases
"buy the worst house in the best neighborhood"
"You can change everything except for location"

For resale, a family with kids in a excellent school district will eat Ramen noodles everyday before moving their kids out of school.

Yup. If resale is the most important factor to you then the first three things you should consider are . . .

1. Location
2. Location
3. LOCATION!!!!